While most sinks have at least a common basket filter to catch food debris from going down the drain. Besides catching larger debris that should not be allowed down the drain, a simple basket is easily clogged, even by smaller food fragments which could be allowed to safely pass down a drain. The basket requires manual removal and shaking the basket contents into compost or garbage containers. Some kitchen proprietors elect to have a garbage or food "disposal" which can fragment all sizes of matter to a flushable size.
A number of food disposal devices are known to allow food material to be safely reduced to fragment size which can be carried through household plumbing to larger sewage conduits. In the post World War II period there was an upsurge of electrically powered food "disposal" units to be attached at the base of a sink. Besides requiring assurance of separation of electrical components from moisture, the many electrically powered disposals purposely keep rotors out of reach of hands. The out of sight out of mind context of rotors, also means that these are not available to view for cleaning or inspection and guards must be placed to avoid losing hard objects into the disposal where these damaging objects cannot be easily retrieved.
The plethora of electrically powered devices in a modern kitchen may mean that mechanical assists have been overlooked by inventors for those who continue to prefer a given task in the manual mode. Yet, many households do not have sink disposals and the ever-clogged baskets of the average sink must be diligently cleaned. A few of the ergonomic disadvantages of operating the simple device of a the common basket are outlined:
1. When a basket is overwhelmed with food particles it must be stirred manually, keeping particles suspended, so that a filled sink can be drained. Stirring does not necessarily send particles down the drain, but only suspends them temporarily allowing temporary fluid drainage. The task of stirring is simple but tedious with the fingers or some kitchenware piece as the tool.
2. Once a sink is drained, the basket allows inspection of food debris, but food particles are adherent because of surface tension of the wet, flexible, and soggy matter. To empty the contents into a garbage container, the user may tap the basket upside down or wipe it with fingers or cloth. Even then, the experienced dishwasher knows the necessity of having to rinse small adherent particles in a spray and of flushing the whole drain assembly, which the basket was meant to protect.
3. It is easy to procrastinate in flushing away small adherent food particles only to allow sugars and nutrients to be leached onto the sink and drain surfaces where the growth of fungus films is the result.
The above problems are associated with adherent small particles of food regardless of quantities of large sized pieces of food debris, and the problems are known even to those kitchen operators who diligently scrape and prepare dishware for the process of washing. Both the diligent "scrapers" who do not feel compelled to own a "disposal" and the disposal owner who has a second sink lacking a powered disposal encounter the everyday task of removing small amounts of food debris from a sink.